Nevis Administration urges Service Providers to comply with impending US tax compliance legislation

On Apr 15, 2013

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NIA CHARLESTOWN NEVIS (April 12, 2013) — Premier of Nevis and Minister of Finance Hon. Vance Amory urged Service Providers who operate on Nevis and would be affected by the implementation of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) from July 2013, to familiarise themselves with the regulations stipulated by the United States of America (USA) and comply.

A section of participants at the Nevis Financial Services Regulation and Supervision Department’s 2013 AML/CFT Awareness Seminar and Training Workshop on April 11, 2013

The Minister of Finance gave the advice when he delivered remarks at the opening of the Nevis Financial Services Regulation and Supervision Department’s two-day 2013 AML/CFT Awareness Seminar and Training Workshop on April 11, 2013. It was held at the Occasions Conference Centre at Pinneys.

“The Nevis Island Administration is encouraging those persons or businesses that will be affected to familiarise themselves with the regulations and make the necessary arrangements to comply.

“We need to start evaluating ourselves – where we are now and what we need to do going forward. We also need to start the process of assessing the impact of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) on our organisations,” he said.

The legislation which was designed by the US Government to improve tax compliance for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), would involve foreign financial assets and off shore accounts. Tax payers from the US with specified foreign financial assets that exceed a certain threshold would have to report their assets to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).

Mr. Amory offered a number of suggestions that could be taken by the Service Providers to comply with the impending legislation that could impact the Jurisdiction.

“Organisations need to develop a culture of compliance which requires that they identify personnel at a very senior level to provide the leadership necessary to bring about change; the requisite human and financial resources must be allocated to ensure effective compliance,” he said.

The Finance Minister also spoke of the need for an ongoing training programme that would communicate compliance policies at all levels of the organisation. He added that disciplinary action should also be taken against employees who breached compliance policies.

“This will demonstrate to the employee that the organisation is indeed very serious about compliance,” he said.

According to the Finance Minister, systems and procedures should be tested and reviewed periodically and he also recommended that the Service Providers establish a compliance code of conduct for the Industry.